Mistinguett

Did you try Febreze?

This is what I bought from TJ - and I'll let you decide if I've been replacing my local butcher/baker: - some TJ artichole dip - frozen artichokes - frozen cherries - very good and pretty cheap prosciutto - Valhrona choc. at $2.69 per bar - tiramisu and choc. gelato - chocolate covered cherries and espresso beans - dried porcini at $2.99 - dried wild mushrooms at $1.99 - whole grain pita and maybe more that I don't remember right now. Point is, I visit TJ for things that I don't find elsewhere or more inexpensive than I'd find even in Queens. It's the same with WF and Fairway - they each offer me something more than I find at my downright awful Key Food/former Food Dinasty. My butcher still gets regular visits, as for a local baker... (sight) I only wish. The best bread I buy in my 'hood is from Key Food, where they bake bread on the premises. I personally don't think TJ undermines small businesses, as they found a niche in the market and this is probably the reason for their succes.

I made it to the store twice (or should I say IN the store) both times late at night, around 8:30. Both times I did the same as you, Nina, but I didn't really have time to shop while standing in line. It's great to just grab something from the shelf, but there was no time to really look at stuff as the lines moved to quickly. Also, there's an express line for when you buy only a few things, extremely fast. All in all I don't think it took longer than 10 minutes in line (not the express) - and that's about the same as Whole Foods or my neighborhood supermarket when it's busy. Sunday evening, around 7 pm there was a line outside - and I won't wait to get in a store. Also, I heard rumors that they're looking to open in either Queens or Brooklyn. I guess that's why they're taking down zip codes at the register.

I have a piece of Staub Basix that it's sold on QVC and I can't say enough about it. It's enameled, dirt cheap, easy to clean, does as good a job as any LC. And, I got the 4 qt with the grill top - love that for stews the ridges catch the moisture or by itself makes a pretty good small stovetop grill.

Jaz, anything with chocolate mousse is a cake in my book.

Cake, no second thoughts. Less equal is more accurate. To me, no matter how good a pie, it cannot equal the complexity of a cake. Extremely interesting as I realized that at home I bake more pies than cakes. Definitely things are going to change. And say what you may, even if technically not correct I'll take cheesecake is a cake.

Sorry to have missed your question, Patrick. No, I didn't use pasteurized egg whites, they were fresh organic eggs. However, I'm afraid they were a bit too cold. Either that or I wasn't as gentle as I thought I am when folding. Talking about milk, what is exactly the difference between sour milk and buttermilk? I remember when I was a child, my mother used to boil just bought (unpasteurized) milk, then cool and refrigerate. Occasionally the milk would separate when heated, obviously being spoiled, but my mother would still bottle it, leave it at room temperature for a day or two and then use it as buttermilk.

Salt and pepper the meat, brush mustard in a fairly thick layer, spread some horseradish as even as possible, and press bread crumbs into the mustard. Roast. Like Dave said, you might need to broil for a few minutes to brown the breadcrumbs.

Strangely, it got even more liquidy. Just right to drink with small sips, like a cold hot chocolate. It's been delicious, just still not a mousse. Oh well, I'll try again. Thank you for your advice, Patrick, much appreciated.

Kim, I looked over the recipe and to me it seems an awful small amount of liquid, 1 1/2 cups heavy cream for 3 lbs. potatoes. I would add at least a cup of milk, or even better - simmer the potato slices in milk (just enough to barely cover the potatoes) for 5 minutes and then pour all in the gratin dish and proceed with the rest of the recipe.

Is there any way to "fix" a chocolate mousse that fell flat? I made the Pierre Herme recipe and all went well up to the last moments of folding the egg whites, when it just deflated. It's in the fridge - should it go down the drain? edited to add that it set somewhat but it's no mousse, it has more of a pudding consistency. I still wonder how this happened - whites too cold, chocolate too warm?

I'm with alacarte on this one (although I went to Whole Foods): tonight at 8:30 pm there was a line to get in TJ. Also, the wine section was open.

Alinka, it must be a regional custom (can I guess Oltenia?), I grew up in Bucharest and we make the pasca without rice - and never heard of it either. Also the shape is more like filipe's Folar, round with a nest-like grilled top and the cheese we use is farmer's cheese. The regional differences in Romania are sometimes astonishing.

On Oahu there's this place called Eggs'n Things where I had the pleasure of discovering the pairing of banana and sour cream wrapped in a crepe, topped with whipped cream and more banana slices. Unforgetable.

You're doing great what you're doing. Watching on TV we felt a gut wrenching sorrow that we couldn't be there with you to party a bit, eat a bit and help with whatever. NOs' heart skip a beat since September but is recovering well, if slowly and painfully. It's in our thoughts and prayers still.

Last week I had a lot of stress at work and I'm up to 5 cigs (smoked half) a day. I'm very unhappy about it and plan to go back to read some more of Carr's book. If that doesn't do it I'll probably go back on Zyban. Taste hasn't improved significantly but I do smell smoke on other people and indeed makes me think that I don't want to smell like that ever again. The hardest part of the day is the morning coffee and late at night when I'm exhausted. There's also a lot of psychological stuff going on that I wish I knew how to figure out (for example just talking about cigs gives me the urge to smoke although reason says I don't want to). I haven't noticed craving salt or crunchy as much as I'm craving sweets much more than before. It's been an eye opener when my husband made the remark that I eat more sweets than him now. Almost every day it's been strudel, crepes with nutella, pound cake, not to mention 4 of Alinka's hazelnut-dulce de leche cheesecake (that in vain I swore I'll never make again as it's inhaled in less than 24 hours, with my husband's help, it's true - but still) since she posted the recipe. Not Alinka's fault at all, it's a great recipe and if anyone else tried it I'd love to hear from you so I can figure out if it's me or just this cheesecake is out of this world. I don't feel I'm replacing cigarettes with food, just that I'm craving more sweets. And that's not a good thing at all. I'll be fighting further, it's getting so annoying that it has to stop for ever sometime soon.

I make garlic sauce by mashing up the garlic with salt (apparently the salt makes the mashing easier) then mixing in a bit of olive oil until it gets to a mayo consistency. At this point makes a good dip, or I dilute it to my taste with cold water and use it for grilled/baked/broiled chicken, fish or pork, sometimes french fries - yeap, no more crispiness but the garlic bath just makes another kind of fries. Sometimes I add some finely chopped parsley, it really doesn't hurt.

Thank you all for a most wonderful blog. How very appropriate that the grand finale was all about smoking - the good kind. You showed us wonderful food throughout this blog, but yesterday was absolutely fantastic. I have to say that I totally understand what you're going through quitting smoking (the bad kind) - I've been on zyban for 2 months (no more) and I read Alan Carr's book and at the moment I still cheat with 2-3-4 drags of my husband's cigarette a couple of times a day. But I'm totally proud of that, after smoking 20-30 cigs a day for over 25 years. I feel that I'm quitting on my own terms and that the addiction is dissipating. I wish we had a thread that would continue your inspiring fight, as the ultimate goal is a healthier life and heightened taste and smell senses - all very much connected to food, isn't it? You are indeed heroes and again I thank you for letting us into your lives. Good luck!

I think it's Spicy Mina's. I didn't make it there yet.

Pan, I suppose that you are aware that Mina is not cooking at Angon anymore, right? She's back in Queens, just opened her own place about a month ago (no relatives involved this time, I hear) - somewhere on B'way around 63rd St if I remember corectly. Happy to hear that the food at Angon is still good even without Mina. Maybe they learned something from her.

We ate at Pho Grand a few days ago and I was not impressed at all. The pho was just a bit above mediocre, the broth was very salty and had no depth. The beef/meats were ok, so they get a + for that. The beef cubes in spices (a dish that I have often at Nha Trang and I love) were actually chunks of beef (tender, indeed) with a watery sauce on a lettuce leaf and raw onion - and again, very salty. My husband had the sweet and sour shrimp and his comment was "it's ok... so and so... it's good" - so you take that however you want. I can only comment on the looks of it - very weird orange-glo color. Service was nice, but the food was disappointing. So sorry, can't agree with Mr. Sietsema.

Daniel, I use FreshDirect quite a bit myself and I've never seen pork belly on their website. They might consider it an inferior/too inexpensive cut of meat. However, it's widely available in Chinatown.

I wrote my recipe here some time ago. For vegetarian or lent, I use a filling of rice mixed with sauteed onion, finely grated carrots, sometimes a few mushrooms sauteed with the onion, salt-pepper-paprika-thyme and a teaspoon of tomato sauce. I have tried the layered method just recently and for me it's just not the same.

This is one link I was saving while I was looking for more info about MREs. Brooks, although I understand that they're not that bad, I'm still sorry that you had the opportunity to show us what they are. I'm grateful. They sure beat a can of soup or beans.

I know that my story will never top some of the others here, but it's been almost 2 years since mine happened and I still can't forget it - so I decided to write it down. Visiting an old friend who married a N. Carolinian. We don't see each other very often and when we do, we usually end up eating in restaurants. But now it's New Year's Eve 2003 and they have people over. Around noon we get ready to prep the turkey and I offer to take care of it - not to brag, but I can make a pretty good turkey (I also know that my friend has never learned how to cook from her mother). I use the cheesecloth/melted butter method and when I ask for cheesecloth I'm asked what that is. They have butter but it turns out it's actually margarine. We'll have to make a run to the supermarket and buy cheesecloth and butter so we decide that my friend and I will go speed-shopping while the male host gets a grill going for lunch. The shopping took a little longer than expected because I couldn't find the needed cheesecloth and none of the employees knew what I'm talking about. I'm ready to give up and just baste the turkey like everybody else when on my way out I find the item hanging from those multi-hooks between two sections. Happy, we get home and find the turkey in the oven already. I'm dumbfounded but he's the host, so there's nothing to say or do. He proudly shows me a rack of spices that he used: half-gallon jugs of you-name-it spice mixtures of obscure brand, some 30 bottles at least. He wasn't sure what he used. It doesn't matter at this point so we go ahead and have lunch. A plethora of meats and smoked sausages, all burnt down to black and dry as jerky. Of course the reason being that you can't work a grill in the garage and prep a turkey (the 2nd floor kitchen) at the same time. No problem, we all had our share of dried up grilled meat, you just get to chew a little longer. Sides for the turkey were to be provided by the cook's sister-in-law so we had a whole afternoon to rest and get ready for the party. Going fast-forward, at around 9 p.m. I find out that the turkey is still in the oven. I worry that it might be overdone but I get a reassuring wink from the cook, telling me that it's practically impossible. Besides, the guests would be there in less than an hour so the time for the turkey to come out is near. Hey, I'm always open to learning something new and a method of not overcooking a turkey for over 8 hours is intriguing. The sides arrive and they are a baked bean casserole and a huge platter (I'd guess supermarket bought) of crudites, plus a six pack of beer. Another guest brings the cake (definitely supermarket bought), good old chocolate cake (really, it had a Christmas tree decoration on it) and a bottle of Asti Spumante. We had provided the appetizers, cold cuts shlepped from my neighborhood, a special request from the hosts. We also brought a couple of bottles of Cerdon de Bugey, dreaming of mimosas by the fireplace for New Year's Day brunch. Turns out a bottle of Asti is not enough for 8 people to toast at midnight so mimosas were forgotten. No biggie. So, I guess some of you can't wait to hear the turkey secret. Alright, the moment of truth has come. It has been injected with ketchup. Generously. When sliced, red rivers have oozed out, making decorative and colorful streaks of sauce, flowing liberally over the stringy meat. Thanks sis-in-law for the veggies. No dip, it looked like it had flour in it.